Long Road Ahead
by snarleyow
Summary: Aurora Humphrey, or Aur as most call her, was just a normal young adult that had grown up and lived in Macon before the outbreak. She lived an average life, still living at home with her father and working part-time as a waitress at the local diner, until one day that all turned upside down. Now she's having a time of it fighting for survival just like everyone else.
1. A New Day

You know, my friends and I always used to joke about how we'd fare in a zombie apocalypse. A lot of people say they'd just bash their way through zombies and ultimately come out on top. Then there are the honest ones who say they'd last about a week tops. My friends always told me that I might've looked weak on the outside, but I had valuable assets within that would save my skin in a pinch.

I was beginning to doubt that.

"Fuck, they're everywhere!" Glenn shouted from the driver's seat, steering erratically across the highway. "I knew the interstate was a bad idea."

When the local news station first started talking about some kind of outbreak, most people didn't take it seriously. Just brushed it off like swine flu. Then the national news started interrupting every station for broadcasts, and people started dying. Then they started coming back.

It wasn't gradual. It was like a whisper at first, just a poorly-timed April Fool's joke. And then all at once the town exploded in a panic. The first one showed up and then there were more, people we knew... getting bitten left and right.

"We need to look for someplace to hole up," Glenn said, breaking me out of my thoughts again.

"Where?" My voice came out sounding more panicked than I intended.

"Somewhere- I don't know!" Glenn shouted over the roar of the car and the growls coming from outside. "We won't make it to Atlanta at this rate. We just need to find a safe place to stay."

"And then what?"

"What do you mean, 'then what?'" Glenn turned his gaze to me briefly, his bloodshot eyes wide. "There are probably more survivors out there. Someone who can help us."

It had only been about three days since the outbreak exploded in Macon, and already the entire city was in disarray. I doubted Atlanta would be any better, so I nodded in silent agreement to Glenn's decision. At least for the time being, we had to stop running blindly.

* * *

><p>There was a drugstore on the south side of town, and as we pulled the car up towards it, I could see the steel cage surrounding the front door had been closed securely.<p>

"What do you know," I mumbled. "Think someone's in there?"

"Gotta be," Glenn replied, cracking his door and checking the surrounding area a few times. "Looks like this place is clear of those things. For now anyways. Should we try to get their attention?" He gestured towards the door again.

Without thinking, I leaned over and honked Glenn's horn a total of three times, hoping to send a distress signal. It wasn't especially loud, so I hoped it would only draw the attention of those still living.

To my surprise, it worked. I saw a guy with blond hair poke his head through the doorway to investigate the source of the noise. Glenn waved at him.

"Hey, uh," Glenn started, always being the talker between the two of us, "think you could help us out? Even just for a night. How many you got in there?"

"Just- just four, counting me," the blond man said, stepping out to face us. "What about you?"

"Just me and my friend here," Glenn replied, motioning for me to get out of the car. I did as he said and nodded in the man's direction.

"Okay, let me just... be right back," he said before darting back into the store, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him.

Glenn leaned against the hood of his car and faced me. "Hey Aur," he spoke quietly. "I never got a chance to say... sorry about your dad."

I immediately directed my gaze towards my feet. Amidst the chaos of the outbreak my father lost his life trying to protect me. That was the first time I came into contact with those... things. The monsters. Despite never having gotten along with my dad, it wrecked me. Glenn was the one who saw that.

I mumbled out a weak, "yeah," not really ready to discuss the subject.

The blond man then stumbled back outside and immediately went to fiddling with the gate. "Lilly says it's alright, so hurry, come on." He slid it open just long enough for Glenn and I to get inside, and immediately closed it once more.

"Thank you," Glenn said.

"Of course. I'm Doug, by the way." He held out his hand and Glenn shook it.

"I'm Glenn, and this is Aur."

Doug nodded and showed us inside, where a woman was standing with her arms crossed. Immediately, she locked gazes with me and I shrunk a bit under her stare. She glanced over toward Glenn, and between us, and then spoke to Doug. "This is it. I don't know how many more we can keep here, but these two don't look like they eat much anyways."

"We don't need to stay long, really," Glenn said, rubbing the back of his neck.

The woman looked him up and down. "I'm Lilly," she said abruptly, then pointed towards the back end of the store. "That's my dad. And over there is Carley. You've met Doug."

"I'm Glenn, and this is Aur."

Lilly just nodded and sauntered towards her dad, who was gazing at us with the same stern glare his daughter wore. The two of them didn't seem hostile, per se, but they definitely weren't especially... friendly. Not that you could blame anyone for that in times like these.

Doug smiled weakly at me. "Well uh, make yourselves at home?"

It was going to be an awkward night.


	2. Blood of the Covenant

_My legs shook as I crept toward the door leading downstairs. I could hear no sound coming from within the dark room but it didn't serve to ease my growing anxiety. This wasn't something I had to do, just felt that I needed to. I couldn't let it just fizzle out this time without a resolution._

_I peeked in and saw him sitting in his chair like usual, only this time he was hunched over and rubbing his face. He looked worn out and much, much older than he had a half-hour ago._

_"Daddy...?"_

_He looked up at me briefly, but only for a moment before his gaze returned to the floor_

_"I'm sorry," I said quietly._

_"You don't need to be the one sayin' sorry," he replied, his voice gruff and cracked._

_I took a few steps closer to him and wrapped my arms around his neck in an awkward hug. He hugged back weakly and looked up at me after I let go, rubbing his eyes._

_"The last thing I wanna do... is hit my own kid," he mumbled weakly, tears streaming from his eyes again._

_"It's okay," I said on impulse._

_"It's not okay," he replied. "It's not okay."_

_Of course I knew it wasn't okay. And I didn't really forgive him, either. But it wasn't any different from any other time to me, and it never really hurt. The only thing that was physically painful was my dry throat and runny nose._

_Despite all his actions, he was my dad. Despite being the epitome of nearly everything I hated in a person... he was my dad. I admitted to myself on multiple occasions that if we weren't kin, I'd probably hate him and never want anything to do with someone like him. But he was my dad and as much as I fully believed it shouldn't, that made all the difference. As much as I believed that the blood of the covenant was thicker than the water of the womb, I still loved him solely because he was my dad._

_I didn't want things to be this way between us. I wanted us to be happy and get along._

_"Look, just- just get away from me when I start getting angry like that, okay?" he pleaded. "I just get mad and I lose control of myself so the best thing to do is just get away. Don't fight."_

_I couldn't really do that, but I nodded anyways. The genes he gave me were the reason I fought back. I wasn't able to just sit by quietly when I knew injustice had been dealt upon me. I had to voice it, even if it meant I would receive consequences._

_"You've just gotta keep trying," I said, with my hand on his shoulder._

_"Sometimes I don't even want to anymore."_

* * *

><p>"Do you hear that?" Carley whispered. "Outside."<p>

I didn't respond, only looked towards the entrance, then at Glenn. He shrugged his shoulders and crossed his arms on the countertop. "All I can hear is that old man bickering," he mumbled, jabbing his thumb in Larry's direction.

Glenn and I hadn't had the best time in the drugstore so far, and Lilly's father, Larry, was least hospitable of all. He spent most of his time griping about us, or his back being sore, or the situation as a whole. Really, he just bitched and moaned at all times unless he was sleeping. I didn't want to dislike him for it, considering his situation and possible health problems due to age, but he was making it really difficult for me to like him. Thankfully, he hardly spoke directly to me.

We had been here a little longer than planned, Glenn and I, due to a herd of the monsters suddenly passing through Macon. Two days by my count. The atmosphere hadn't improved much, but Carley and Doug were both nice people, so we got along alright.

I liked Doug especially; he seemed a little weird at first, but I found out that he wasn't so different from me. We shared a few common interests, and he was very smart to compensate for his awkward exterior.

"Listen," Carley started again. "I think someone's out there."

She quickly made her way across the room towards Doug, who was keeping lookout. He squinted through the crack in the door and turned towards her.

"Let me have a look," she said, gently pushing him aside to peek out the door. Glenn turned his gaze towards her, listening for her report.

"There's a group outside," she said quietly, without tearing her eyes from the street.

I saw Lilly squint her eyes and scowl in disapproval. "Don't get any ideas."

Carley kept on staring out the door, holding her gun close to her side. Glenn's curiosity seemed to get the better of him, and he stepped forward to get a closer look too. I stayed put, having no desire to feel Lilly's wrath if it came to that.

Lilly wasn't as outright unkind as her father, but she was a hard woman, determined first and foremost to protect her father. With goals and an attitude like hers, I was never sure why she declared herself the group leader. I guess alongside a weak-willed Doug, Carley just never found any reason to stand up to her.

Until now, anyways.

"WAAH!"

"Shit-!"

Carley shot out the door and was through the gates in a matter of seconds, her gun drawn and pointing to something I couldn't see. Glenn rushed out after her and onto the street. I jumped from my seat by the counter and rushed towards the doorway, surveying the scene alongside Doug.

I heard gunshots and saw new faces, some alive, some dead; it was all a blur.

"Run!" Glenn shouted.

Several people were rushed inside in a matter of seconds and once they were all in, Glenn shut the gate and locked it securely.

Turning around, the first thing I heard was Lilly's voice. "We can't take risks like this!"

"We can't just let people die, either!" Carley shouted back in her face.

"When I say that door stays shut no matter what, I FUCKING mean it," Lilly's voice was hushed but angry. "We don't know who these people are; they could be dangerous!"

"They could have led them right to us," Larry said, regarding the monsters outside.

"They would've died out there!" Carley replied.

One of the men from the new group spoke up then. He was a black man with a kind face who looked to be the leader of their group. "We have kids with us."

"I see one little girl," Larry pointed a finger at a girl standing next to the other man. Turning back towards the counter, I could plainly see a small boy being cleaned up by (presumably) his mother. He looked shaken up and dirty.

I glanced towards the little girl who was squeezing her legs together anxiously.

"I'd go out there again in a second," Glenn spoke up, crossing his arms.

"Bet you would," I mumbled. It wasn't that I doubted him- I knew he would. Glenn was fast and he knew his way around the city. So did I.

"They've got kids, Lilly," he pleaded.

She squinted at him angrily. "Those things outside don't care."

Another man, this one with a big mustache and a baseball cap sneered at her. "Maybe you should go join 'em then. You'd have somethin' in common."

"God damn it, Lilly," Larry groaned, flailing his hands around, "you have to control these people."

"Carley and Glenn just ran out there!" she retorted.

"I don't give a flying fuck!" Larry shouted. "We're in a warzone."

"She's the leader here," their leader grumbled, "but it looks like she's losing control of her people."

Lilly's anger flared. "If you were in my shoes you'd be th-"

"Holy shit," Larry cut her off, turning towards the boy and his mother. "Son of a bitch, one of them is bitten!"

"He wasn't bitten," the leader said quickly.

"Hell he wasn't!" Larry was pointing fingers again. It seemed he did that a lot. "We have to end this now."

He walked towards the boy and his mother before mustache man stepped in front of them. He was significantly shorter than Larry, but didn't look frightened in the slightest.

"Over my dead body."

"We'll dig one hole," Larry said, getting in the man's face.

"No!" the mother shouted. "I'm cleaning him up; there's no bite! He's fine!"

"Don't you fucking people get it?" Larry shouted. "We've already seen this happen! We let someone with a bite stay, and-and WE all end up bitten!"

"Shut up," mustache man said simply.

"We gotta throw him out!" Larry continued. "Or smash his head in!"

"KENNY! STOP HIM!" The mother was frantic now, and I assumed this mustache man was Kenny, her husband and the boy's father.

"Lee, what do we do about this guy?" Kenny said, glancing towards the leader.

Despite her own anger, Lilly pleaded with her father to calm down. It seemed she was against hurting the boy, and so was I. Just not enough to get directly involved in such a conflict. I stood back and surveyed the scene with Glenn.

"We kick his ass," Lee growled, crossing his arms.

"That's what I'm thinkin'," Kenny took a step closer to Larry.

"Everyone CHILL THE FUCK OUT!" Carley shouted, stepping in front of Glenn and I.

"Nobody is doing anything," Lilly pleaded.

"Shut up, Lilly!" Larry shouted, then turned towards Carley. "And you, shut the fuck up." He spun around to look at everyone. "They will find us and they will get in here, and none of this will fucking matter. But right now, we're about to be TRAPPED in here with one of those things."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kenny asked.

"He's bitten!" Larry shouted, leaning in towards the other man's face. "That's how you TURN."

"He's not bitten!" the mother repeated. "Lee, stop this. It's upsetting him!"

"Oh, I'm upsetting him?" Larry looked around. "Upsetting is getting eaten alive!"

"Dad, we get it, it's a big deal," Lilly continued to try and quell her father's anger, to no avail. Silently I wondered to myself if all fathers tended to be angry and violent.

"It's Larry, right?" Lee crossed his arms again. "Man, this is his son."

"Look around, dumbass," Larry waved his arm around. "I got a daughter in here, you got a daughter in here. Get your head outta your ass, boy."

"We've all got people in here and we can figure this out without killing anybody! There's another way!"

"Yeah, with a shovel."

Kenny had had it now. "I'm gonna kill him, Kat! Just worry about Duck."

Lee's daughter called out to him, and I found it odd that she used his first name. Maybe Larry was mistaken? He told her where the key to the bathroom was... which was strange, because even I wasn't sure where it was kept. We hadn't been able to get in there this whole time.

"Hey, I'm not the bad guy here," Larry continued. "I'm just looking out for my daughter."

"No, you're just the guy arguing for killin' a kid," Kenny spat.

"He's covered in muck! She'll find the bite. Watch."

"She won't."

"And if she does?" Larry was leaning in close to Kenny's face now, and neither of them faltered. "The first thing he'll do is sink his teeth into his mom's face. Then, once she's dead, he'll probably pounce on your little girl," he said, turning towards Lee. "She'll turn fast, and then there'll be three."

"He's a little boy," Lee rationalized. "I think we can handle him."

"A little boy? He'll be an uncontrollable man-eater."

"It's not gonna happen!" Kenny shouted, getting close to his face again.

"It is, and we're tossing him out now!" Larry shouted.

Lee had had enough. He sneered and leaned towards Kenny. "Knock this guy out."

"Happily," Kenny said, and then he swung on Larry, nailing him right in the face. His victory was short-lived, however, when Larry immediately bounced back and decked him, seemingly knocking Kenny out cold.

Through the gasps of horror from the two groups, the piercing scream of one little girl echoed from the back end of the room.

"CLEMENTINE!"


	3. To Be Still

_World gone to shit. Might as well quit._

_It all happened so fast. Everything blacked out and the whole world seemed to lose its color. The sky was grey, the grass was grey, the skin on people's faces... was grey._

_The bile rising in my throat told me to get out but the way my knees were shaking told me otherwise. I never experienced it before- the absolute volume of fear that plants your feet firmly on the ground, as if drilling themselves into the earth so that you would never move again. Frozen in despair._

_After the screams had died away, the only sounds to be heard on the otherwise quiet street were the gnashing of teeth, the tearing of flesh, the squish of one's organs, and the quiet, collective groans that came from each moving being around me. It was as if they were chanting quietly, mumbling to themselves a sacred prayer before a meal, or a mantra during a ritual. They weren't evil for they did not even possess the capacity to mock the living. They simply ate. And ate. And wasted away._

_A hand came down on my shoulder and I finally tore my eyes away from the sight before me. When I turned, expecting certain death, I saw instead a violently bright ray of hope. The last living thing on the planet, perhaps, that still cared for me was making his best attempt to save me from myself._

_I gave in._

* * *

><p>"It's so foggy."<p>

I was shifting my gaze across the street, keeping a lookout just in case we ran into any trouble on the run. Glenn was rubbing the back of his neck and walking at a brisk pace. It was still mid-evening, as far as I could tell, and the sun had never quite managed to break through the thick cloud cover. I didn't really mind, though, as I had always been sensitive to its rays.

Glenn simply nodded at my comment, his eyes focused on the road ahead of him. I guessed now wasn't the best time to make conversation, but the silence between us wasn't an uncomfortable one.

_"CLEMENTINE!"_

There had been a walker in the bathroom. Walkers- that's what Lee and his people called them. I think I liked that a little more than other nicknames. It retained a little bit of humanity.

Lee had rushed forward to save Clementine but when he was pinned down, Carley shot the walker in its head. It wasn't the first time I'd seen one go down, but I had never been so close before.

I was certain on everyone's names now. There was Lee and Clementine. Kenny, his wife Katjaa, and their son Duck. And of course, Lilly, Larry, Carley, Doug, Glenn and I.

I remembered hearing walkers outside after ours went down. Then gunshots. Then Larry.

Well, not to say that Larry's complaining voice wasn't a constant, but he had grunted in pain and fell to the floor suddenly, causing great alarm among those who weren't aware of his health conditions. It had been his heart acting up, and Lilly informed Lee that we had been unable to get inside the pharmacy to get pills the entire time we'd been here. He assured her he would do something about it.

Glenn and I, we volunteered to make a run around town to siphon as much gas as possible, since it was more clear to us than the rest that the drugstore- it wasn't going to be a permanent solution. We knew that from the beginning.

_"You're insane," Lee spat._

_"Well, it's gotta get done," Glenn replied. "Plus, we're quick. And we know Macon."_

_"Locals?" the other man asked curiously._

_"Born and raised," I smiled at him._

_Lee reached into his back pocket and handed something to Glenn. "If you're gonna do that, here's a walkie-talkie in case you get into a tight spot. Hopefully you won't need it."_

_"Cool."_

_"Clementine's got the other one. Check in with her and get back here as soon as you can."  
><em>  
>Lee hadn't been giving orders; his tone was respectful and his face showed kindness. In fact, Kenny seemed to take charge more often. They were both good men, as far as I could tell, just trying to protect those important to them.<p>

Glenn and I had made it out pretty well so far- about one and a half jugs of gas, all siphoned from nearby cars. It was really crazy how so much was just... left behind. We set the gas cans a little ways away from the motor inn and snuck towards the parking lot.

I looked up towards the big LED sign in front of the buildings, still glowing bright in the dim atmosphere. "If this place still has power," Glenn mused quietly, "who knows what else could be in there."

I surveyed the area, keeping my eyes out for roaming walkers. There seemed to be a few in the lot, but none of them noticed or payed any attention to us. Two of them looked like they were trying to claw through a door on the top floor.

"What are you thinking?" I asked, keeping my voice barely above a whisper. As if I couldn't already guess. Glenn's eyes were focused and he was chewing lightly on his lower lip, the way he always did when coming up with one of his schemes. Said schemes were always incredibly poorly thought-out.

"I'm thinking we get in there and see what we can scavenge," he was nodding to himself, already decided without my input.

"Are you crazy?" I whisper-shouted. "The lot is crawling with walkers; we can't just go in there aimlessly to do some fucking windowshopping!"

It dawned on me that this was the most vocal I had been all day, despite still keeping a low voice. I was only ever this open about my opinions with Glenn, and I was usually only talktative when we were alone. And of course, even though I always tried to talk him down from ideas like this one, I always wound up going along with him in the end. Every time, without fail. It was just too hard to resist.

"Wait. Do you hear that?" Glenn suddenly turned his attention towards the door I had noticed earlier and the walkers surrounding it.

"All I hear are grunts," I mumbled.

"No- shh," he whispered, holding his hand up to silence me.

Then I heard it. Beneath the low groans of the walkers, from behind the door they surrounded, came a very human noise. A quiet sob.

* * *

><p>"This is absolutely ridiculous," I grumbled under my breath.<p>

"What else was I supposed to do?" Glenn sneered. "The closest door was like... at least a couple meters away. At least they can't see us here. I think it taunts them less."

"I'm going to die in here."

I wriggled around a bit, trying not to make too much noise, but also trying to maintain at least a little distance between myself and the boy that now lay beneath me. The latter was proving to be completely impossible. If it were anyone else, I think I would have been searching for ways to off myself.

As expected, Glenn's "plan" fell completely flat and the roaming walkers got the jump on us. Neither of us are experienced fighters, myself especially, so we knew right away the odds weren't in our favor.

Ever the quick thinker, Glenn had pulled me along with himself into a dumpster on the wall of the motel. Now we both squatted in uncomfortable positions with the nerve-wracking threat of walkers looming all around us.

"Wait," I whispered. "Don't you still have that walkie-talkie on you?"

"Oh, right!" Glenn fumbled around, digging in his pockets until he pulled it out. He held it close to his mouth and pressed the button down. "Hey there, this is Glenn, and uh, we're kinda in a jam here. Uh, little girl, if you're there, can you put your daddy on the phone? Or the talkie, or whatever?"

I rolled my eyes at Glenn's poor attempt to communicate with children.

It wasn't long before another voice came from the talkie. "This is Lee, what's up?"

"So... we're down at that motor in, and, well, w-we're stuck."

It was a little funny to hear him admit it. I grinned at him without thinking, and he grimaced and looked away from me, his face tinted pink.

"Stuck?" Lee sounded confused.

"Yeah," Glenn grumbled. "I, uh, saw a chance to get some supplies for the group, and a bunch of the roaming ones got the jump on us. We're hiding over here but they won't leave."

There was a pause, then: "Hey Glenn, we're gonna talk it over and send a group to come get you, alright?"

"Phew, awesome," Glenn replied. "We'll sit tight 'till then."

"Sounds good."

Glenn stuck the walkie-talkie in his back pocket again and shifted his weight off his ankles. He was leaning against me a little now, but I didn't feel like complaining. It's Glenn, after all.

"So," I whispered, "do we just... wait now?"

Glenn pressed his hand against the top of the dumpster, daring a peek outside. The groans and shuffling of feet were still close. He sat back down quickly.

"Guess so."


	4. Happy Ending

_Being outside at night was something I never quite grew accustomed to, despite all the times I snuck out just to get away. The sound accompanying my every intake of breath seemed to echo around me until it disappeared into the quiet air around me waiting to be followed by another. I became absorbed in it, focusing on the inflating and deflating of my own lungs, a constant rhythm that only I could control. And I thought about how nice it was to have one thing in this moment I had under control._

_The railroad tracks across the road from my house continued on into the deep woods until they disappeared out of my line of sight on either side. I was shielded from the view of my own home by a line of trees, so I never ventured very far. I just didn't want to go home._

_By this time I was at the age in which I no longer wondered whether or not it was normal to never want to go home. I was aware of my situation, though I never thought it was bad enough to do anything about it. I knew nothing would get done anyways, and it was too much of a burden on everyone else if I decided to raise a fuss about it after all this time. Just a few more years... and I wouldn't have to deal with it any more. I could finally take control of my own life._

_Wanting to have total control but lacking ambition made for an interesting combination in a growing teenager. I never thought about college during my free time because it was shoved down my throat every other time, even though everyone was fully aware my college funds were nonexistent. I ignored it and pined for the day when I would struggle to survive on my own._

_"What are you doing?" A voice came from the darkness, breaking me out of my trance._

_I turned to face him and saw that Glenn stood awkwardly on the other side of the tracks with his hands in his pockets._

_"Just waiting for everyone to go to bed," I answered._

_He sat next to me, his gaze the dim light shining from the door of my house. He didn't need to ask why, because he knew._

* * *

><p>"So, uh," Glenn mumbled quietly, "you doing alright?"<p>

I glanced at him, barely making out his features in the dark confines of our hiding place. "Yeah," I whispered in reply. "Why?"

"Just... you know. I guess I was worried," he shifted awkwardly, "about how you're taking this whole situation. After we saw your dad die- I mean I-"

"Hush," I said, abruptly silencing him. It wasn't necessarily that I didn't want to discuss the death of my father, but Glenn tended to want to fill up waiting periods with useless chatter, and now wasn't really the time to make any more noise than necessary.

I felt a little bad about cutting him off, though. He still had no idea what had become of his family. I guess it's a little morbid to be thankful that I only had one family member to lose, and now that he was gone I was at least left with some form of closure. But that's what it was, at least; I didn't have any blood tying me to this world anymore, and in my mind that numbed the pain a little bit.

I didn't know how long we had been waiting before I heard the soft shuffle of quiet footsteps outside, too quick and careful to be walkers. I reached towards the door, ready to open it and peek outside, but Glenn beat me to the punch and the idiot threw the entire door wide open and stuck his head out. Luckily for him, on the outside waited Lee and Carley.

"Guys!" he whispered. "Oh, thank God you're here."

"Jesus, Glenn," Carley mused, mimicking my thoughts well enough.

We both hopped over the brick wall that Lee and Carley were using to take cover. Glenn gazed at the other man with a determined look on his face, and immediately I knew what he was up to.

"Alright, that wasn't so hard," Lee breathed.

"Can we get out of here before any of these things notice us?" Carley asked. I found myself silently agreeing with her pretty often. I knew Glenn had other plans, though.

"Not yet," he whispered back. "There's a survivor trapped up there." And we all glanced towards the second floor, where distant sobbing could be heard past the door that was crowded by two walkers.

"No way! We gotta go, NOW." Carley shot him down immediately.

"Listen," Glenn pleaded. "We were out here looking for gas. And then, up there in the corner room, we heard crying coming from inside."

Glenn explained the situation further to Lee, how we spoke to the girl behind the door briefly, who insisted one of us was bitten, or something like that. I had kept my distance from the door during that time, trying to keep lookout, and most of her words were muffled. He finished recalling how several walkers appeared from the forest and forced us to hide in the- ice machine. That was an ice machine? Sure didn't smell like one on the inside. I let my mind drift wondering what could be stored in there, and found myself checking the bottom of my shoes with concern.

"Lucky you," Carley spat. "Now let's go."

"We can't just leave her," Glenn begged again.

I absentmindedly picked at a foreign substance on the side of my shoe, expecting Glenn's rescue mission to be shot down once more. However, Lee's deep voice surprised me. "Damn right we can't," he said solidly. Knew that guy had to be too nice for his own good.

"You guys are suicidal, over a girl!" Carley pleaded now, her eyebrows drawn together.

"I'm saving her, with or without you!" Glenn shot back. Oh great, now we were really fucked.

"Think about if it was you," Lee turned his hardened gaze upon Carley, and suddenly I was glad I had decided to keep my opinion to myself.

Carley shook her head briefly before conceding. "Fine. Let's go save Glenn's damsel in distress." I wrinkled my nose briefly at this comment.

I glanced across the lot, picking out each individual walker while Lee relayed the plan. The room was boarded up, so there was no way to take out the walkers next to it and sneak inside quietly. Lee said we'd have to take out every walker in here, and at this, I heard Carley's gun click. "Quietly," Lee said to her. "Noise attracts these things. Now let's have a look around."

I nodded subconsciously at Lee's reasoning. Quietly was just how I was used to working. Not only did I never learn how to shoot a gun, in my eyes they were only useful in emergencies when making too much noise meant risking death.

Lee reached around the side of the wall for something, but I couldn't quite see what. I heard Carley mutter, "Good luck smothering them to death." Then I guessed- a pillow. Not for smothering, but maybe... maybe it would muffle the noise of a gunshot enough to keep them off our backs. But only if we got close.

We looked around a bit more, got our bearings, before sneaking towards a truck parked on the outskirts of the lot. We all crouched behind it, still hidden from the view of any walkers. I crouched next to Lee when he turned to me and whispered, "I wonder if there's anything in the pickup."

I looked inside and saw a weird screwdriver, or some kind of pick, on the seat. But the passenger door was locked, and there was no way for us to break the window without drawing attention. I informed Lee of my discovery, and he turned to glance at a walker slumped at the front side of a car a few feet away.

"Get out your gun," he said to Carley.

"But the noise-"

"Just follow my lead," he cut her off before taking hold of the pillow from before and skulking towards the walker. I watched as he covered its face and shoved it into the side of the car, then Carley shot into the pillow. Perhaps a shot in the dark, I thought, before it abruptly ceased movement and fell over onto its side.

"That was sick!" Glenn praised. I nodded in approval and shot a small smile towards Lee.

Lee opened the door of the car and looked around inside. I saw him unlock the gear shift and then turn to Glenn, exchanging a few words before he shut the door quietly. I made my way towards the front end of the car next to Carley, and as Lee stood and pushed the side of the car, I pushed it backward as well. It rolled across the lot, slowly gaining a bit of speed, before slamming into a male walker and trapping him against the wall at his middle. I caught sight of a fireaxe behind emergency glass next to him.

Back at the truck, Glenn took a small object from Lee that he must have picked up inside the car. A sparkplug. "The porcelain inside these things turns car windows to tissue paper," Glenn mused before he crushed the plug under his boot. He picked up the shards inside and grinned, handing them to Lee. I briefly rolled my eyes, however thankful that Glenn's seemingly useless bits of knowledge came in handy in times like these.

Lee tossed the porcelain at the window, and the sound of shattering glass caused the walkers by the door to glance in our direction, but it wasn't enough to draw them near us. I exhaled in relief as Lee reached in and pulled out whatever was inside - an ice pick.

"That could scramble a brain pretty good," Glenn remarked.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Lee said, his deep voice rumbling in my eardrums again.

We snuck back towards the wall while Lee went on ahead, coming up behind a female walker that was eating something in the middle of the lot. I didn't tear my eyes away from him as he quickly shoved the pick into the back of her head and yanked it right out in one swift motion. She fell to the ground, half-life gone from her body.

He continued on to the RV, Glenn behind him this time, and whistled quietly. This must've lured a walker on the other side, because I saw him jump forward, before reeling back with the pick in his outstretched hand.

The coast was now (mostly) clear, and Carley and I wandered out from behind the wall, following Lee and Glenn who were already on their way towards the walker trapped against the car. Lee walked towards him casually, as the thing wildly reached for him. He shoved the pick into his brain and didn't pull it back out this time, as the walker's lifeless body fell against the car. I was impressed, needless to say.

"Dude, where'd your weapon go?" Glenn asked as he came up beside Lee.

"Into that icepick-sized hole," the other man replied, earning a chuckle from me.

Glenn barked out a single laugh. "Haha! Holy shit." He glanced towards the fireaxe on the wall.  
>"It's cool. Now we've got this."<p>

"Are you two done?" Carley rolled her eyes, and I just grinned at my shoes, appreciating their silly banter.

Lee grabbed the axe and glanced up towards the door. "Two more."

"That should help," Glenn said, still grinning.

Lee snuck towards the staircase and when we reached its base, turned back to us. "Why don't you guys lag behind, in case this goes to hell."

Glenn and I nodded in unison, while Carley assured him, "Okay. We'll be right behind you."  
>Lee was probably better going solo anyways, I thought to myself. He looked like he could take out a horde of walkers by himself.<p>

I watched him put the axe into both of the walkers heads with ease, letting out a grunt as he decapitated one.

"Rad," I mumbled quietly.

We all walked up the stairs to join him and he knocked on the door. "Hello in there? We're here to help."

"Please, just go away!" the distraught voice inside replied.

"Let's go, guys," Carley groaned, her hand on her hip.

I glanced at her. "We've already come this far."

"In a minute," Lee said, mostly disregarding her attitude. He turned his attention back to the door. "If you open up we can take you somewhere safer. We've got a group in town."

I wrinkled my brow a bit at the thought of this, knowing full well that Lilly would disapprove.

"No no no! Please no," the voice shouted.

"She's in trouble," Glenn concluded.

Lee backed up from the door a bit. "Miss! We're coming in."

Then he brought his axe down upon the wood that had boarded the door. It was still locked, however, so he kicked the door once before the voice resounded again: "Stop, just stop! I'm coming out."

The door unlocked and opened slowly, and the girl's sillhouette came into our view. To our shock, she was drenched in blood- presumably, her own.

"You're hurt," Lee breathed.

"Oh, God," Carley mumbled.

Glenn's face just scrunched up uncomfortably, while I kept my eyes on the girl's hand covering a wound at her side.

"I... I said stay away," she cried.

"We need to get you help," Glenn said hurridly, his arms a bit outstretched towards her.

"It's too late for that," the girl said, removing her hand from her wound. I knew instantly what fate had befallen her.

"Guys, she's been bitten," Carley said.

"What!?" Glenn jumped a little. I was surprised he couldn't already tell, given the appearance of the large gash on her side. Her features were sunken in as well, and if I had to take a guess, I would assume the fever had already set in. I'd only seen it up close once before, but I wouldn't take chances under these circumstances.

"I told you! I said go away!" the girl shouted at us, her voice breaking between every sentence.  
>"I'm bit! But you wouldn't just leave."<p>

"Let's calm down," Lee tried to reason with her. "You could be fine."

"I won't be fine!" she shouted back. "My boyfriend was bitten. You get sick and you die, and you come back and you kill anything you can find!"

Glenn's gaze dropped to the floor. "You have a boyfriend?"

"GLENN," Carley and I spat at him in unison.

"I don't want that," the girl continued, pleading with us now. "It's not Christian. Please, just leave me, please go."

Lee squinted. "Come with us, and we'll find you some help."

I shook my head almost imperceptibly, knowing she was a lost cause already. Her gaze shifted down towards the object in Carley's hand. "You have a gun," she said calmly, and I knew what she was thinking.

"So?" Carley grimaced.

"Can I... borrow it?" The girl leaned forward a bit.

"What do you mean, 'borrow'?" Carley frowned deeper, and I wondered if she really didn't understand at this point or if she was simply prolonging the inevitable.

"Give it to me," the girl begged. "I can just, you know, end this and then - then there's no problem."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Lee's voice grew in volume.

"PLEASE," the girl practically screamed. "I don't want to be one of them! They're... theyre... satanic."

I caught myself rolling my eyes a little bit at her last statement, but immediately felt bad.

Lee's gaze hardened instantly, and he turned to Carley. "Give it to her."

"What? You can't be serious."

"Do it." His eyes narrowed.

"No!" Carley spat back and turned away from him a bit.

I placed my hand on Carley's shoulder lightly. "There's no happy ending to this," I said quietly. "It's her own life, to do with what she chooses. We have no right to take away her escape route."

Carley's wide-eyed gaze bored into mine for a long moment, and I thought, this is probably the most she's heard me speak in one setting. She closed her eyes briefly, and nodded. "Okay, fine." Her voice was quiet as she placed the gun on the floor in front of the dying girl. I guessed she still didn't have the heart to hand it directly to her.

The girl picked up the gun and her gaze shifted between Lee and I. "Thank you so much. I know how terrible this must be."

"We can't watch this," Glenn said, turning to me. "Let's go."

"We can't go yet," Carley told him.

"What? Why not?" he shouted back.

"Because somebody needs to pick up the gun," Lee said quietly.

"You guys go on," I said.

"What?" Glenn shouted, his voice even louder this time. "Aur, no. Someone else can do it."

I shook my head. "No, I will."

Glenn frowned, his gaze meeting mine. "You don't need to see this."

His eyes bored into mine, and I stared straight back. "It's my decision."

His face hardened, and his mouth set into a tight line. "Okay," was all he said, before he abruptly turned and headed back down the stairs. Carley followed, and Lee hung back, his eyes on me.

"You sure?" he asked, his voice almost a whisper.

I didn't look at him. "Yeah."

He followed the others down the steps, and I turned to the girl, staring directly into her eyes. I nodded to her, and smiled briefly, earning a small smile back from her. "I'm here with you," I whispered.

"You're a good woman," she said, and raised the gun to her temple. I closed my eyes and lowered my head until I heard a loud shot directly in front of me, and with a muffled crash her body went limp and slammed into the floor. I opened my eyes and saw her head at my feet, blood pooling into the space between my shoes and sticking to the grime on the sides.

I picked up the gun silently and headed on down the steps to rejoin the others.


	5. Gone

Glenn didn't speak a word to me the whole way back to the drugstore. I knew it wasn't because he had nothing to say to me, but rather, he was waiting until we got back to safety to bawl me out.

Kenny greeted us as we returned through the back entrance. "Everyone alright?"

"Yeah," Lee replied. "We had some close calls, but Glenn and Aur are fine and... well, yeah... we're okay." He shrugged his shoulders lightly and glanced at the floor, not meeting Kenny's gaze. The mustachioed man didn't press him further.

"I've got a few cans of gas for your pickup in the trunk of my car," Glenn said quietly. His hands were on his hips and his gaze was downturned. He didn't dare look in my direction.

"Good to hear it," Kenny replied.

"And things back here?" Carley asked, stepping out of the doorway.

"Quiet," he replied as he glanced towards Larry, who was still slumped on the back wall. "Our _friend_is still in and out over there. He won't survive any more stress."

"The next order of business is getting those pills out of the pharmacy," Lee concluded, and the other man simply nodded at him before returning to his family.

Glenn had slipped out of my line of sight, and now occupied a spot next to the bathroom. He had his arms crossed and was leaning his back against the wall, pretending to be lost in thought as he looked away from me. I settled in next to him, sitting on the ledge in front of the grate that guarded the pharmacy. It didn't budge a bit under my weight.

"Glenn," I began, seeing as he wasn't about to lay into me just yet. "Back at the Motor Inn..."

"How can it be that bad so fast?" he said solemnly, shrugging his shoulders and keeping his gaze on the floor.

"Some people just wanna end it when given the option. It's easier for them that way... spares a lot of suffering on their part."

He shook his head. "I guess, but that's not me. I'm not giving up, not for anything."

I picked at my fingernails a bit while I pondered how to reply. Eventually I settled on the simplest option: "That's good."

"You let her do it, you know," Glenn spat, turning to face me briefly. Now I knew this was what he had been waiting to say. "You and Lee- you said give her the gun."

"I know."

"Why the hell would you do that?" he squinted in anger and raised his voice a bit.

"She didn't want to live, Glenn," I replied, keeping my voice steady. "It was mercy."

"You never know," he continued. "You can't give up hope."

"I think it was over for her, Glenn," I finished, but I didn't leave just yet.

I remained in my seat by the grate and tentatively placed a hand on Glenn's shoulder. He didn't react, but it didn't really seem like he was angry with me anymore.

I wondered if he had ever really been angry with me, or with himself, or if the sight of someone else losing hope that way had simply shaken him up and he needed an outlet.

Lee approached us after a bit, smiling at me before he turned to Glenn.

"What's your next move?" he asked.

"I don't know," Glenn answered. "I mean, you guys seem okay."

"What about your family?"

"Yeah, I... I..." Glenn trailed off there, making his answer very clear.

"Forget it, man," Lee said softly. "That's your business."

Glenn looked towards me briefly, and then down at the floor. "I hate feeling like I can't do anything," he mumbled.

"I know the feeling, man," Lee responded, also sending a quick glance my way. "Try to get some rest."

Glenn leaned back against the wall. "Yeah, right."

* * *

><p>Glenn and I sat around for several more minutes, him feeling disheartened and me unsure of what to do. It wasn't long, however, before I saw Lee and Doug hurry back through the front door after having looked around outside. Lee carried something in his hand, what I assumed to be the key to the pharmacy. He looked a bit shaken up.<p>

He spoke to Lilly, who followed him into the back of the building. I let a smile briefly cross my face, thankful that Larry would be getting the medicine he needed, even if he was an asshole.

My joy was shortlived, however, as an alarm abruptly rang out among the building. It was the loudest sound I had heard in awhile, and it hurt my ears.

Everyone panicked, sure that the sound would draw the dead to our location.

"I'm gonna get the truck pulled up 'round back!" Kenny hollered as everyone clamored to grab their belongings and loved ones. He barked out a stream of orders, and I was grateful for the sense of direction it brought me in the chaos.

My job was to assist Glenn in getting everything into the vehicle, supplies and passengers alike. He met me a bit later outside as I struggled to hoist a can of gas into the bed of Kenny's truck, figuring he would need it.

Glenn rushed outside, lifting Duck into his arms and tossing him unceremoniously into the truck. As far as I knew, the only remaining people inside were Lee, Carley, and Doug.

"Where's Clementine?" I shouted, the loudest I had been all day.

"Shit!" It dawned on Kenny and he rushed back into the building, still holding onto Lee's axe. I heard him shouting at the others as he went. Larry followed after him.

I waited anxiously until I could see Kenny return, Doug and Clementine following behind him. She turned her head however, looking back towards Larry, who was still inside.

"No!" she yelled, but Larry grabbed her hand and yanked her out onto the street towards the getaway truck.

Lee and Carley still weren't here.

Kenny snarled and rushed back inside, holding his axe at ready. By this time Glenn had pulled me into his car, and I could only watch the door for the two men to return, my anxiety bubbling up from the pit of my stomach.

After too long, Kenny emerged again dragging a muck-covered Lee along with him. I saw no signs of Carley, however, as the remaining survivors piled into their getaway vehicles and we all sped away from the drugstore.

* * *

><p>We all wound up back at the motor inn, the same place where I'd seen another survivor take her escape route.<p>

I still sat huddled in the passenger seat of Glenn's car, knees pulled up to my chest, as he stood with the door open and listened to the same emergency broadcast play over the radio that had been going for the past week.

I glanced around to see Lilly piling up some bodies of the undead, and Kenny's family going through their belongings in the back of the truck. It almost seemed as if they were ready to settle in.

"You know we can't do this," I muttered.

"Yeah," Glenn replied, rubbing his forehead. He seemed very affected by the events prior, and I wondered if it was the apparent death of a comrade that bothered him, or death in and of itself.  
>Lee approached Glenn from the front side of the car. They paused and listened to the radio, which reiterated the catastrophe state of Atlanta.<p>

"I think we need to go," Glenn explained to him.

"To Atlanta?" Lee asked. "It sounds like nobody knows what's happening there. When we left a few days ago, it could have gone either way."

Atlanta was supposed to be a refuge. There were supposed to be resources there, and help... when it all began, that's where we were headed. But it seemed like the dead littered the street so much that we couldn't escape them no matter where we went.

"We gotta take our chances," Glenn said, his head down.

I could see Lilly standing nearby, her arms crossed. I met her gaze with a solemn one of my own, and I noticed Lee wave her off out of the corner of my eye.

"You gotta do what you gotta do," Lee said quietly.

"And we gotta do this," Glenn replied.

"I respect that."

"You guys be safe."

"We'll try."

"And Lee, you know," Glenn paused, "if this doesn't get better... people are going to give up. Like the girl from upstairs." I looked down and picked at my nails. "Are you just going to let them? You told Carley to give her the gun."

"Yeah, I did," Lee replied simply.

"Maybe you were right," Glenn said, his voice shaky. "I don't know how to handle something like that." He paused as Lee and I shared a look of grief. "Anyway, see you around."

Lee bent down to eye-level with me, and gave me a smile and a nod, which I returned full force. If I would miss anyone from this group, it was him. But I trusted him to take care of everyone, too.

Glenn climbed back in the car, started it, and we were gone.


End file.
